I hope that my professional life and my civic engagement can contribute to the protection of biodiversity. My project during the École Normale Supérieure engagement year (ASPEN) will allow me to get actively involved, starting right now, in a cause that is meaningful to me.
A student at the École Normale Supérieure deeply committed to preserving biodiversity
Bastien PERROT, a student in the Biology (BIO) Department’s DER program, is developing a project on “Training public officials, elected officials, and future senior civil servants on biodiversity issues" at the French Office for Biodiversity.
Biodiversity loss is a phenomenon now widely documented by the scientific community, particularly through the work of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), yet it still struggles to receive the attention it deserves in public and political discourse, given the gravity of the issue. As a result, this phenomenon and its consequences remain poorly understood and are regularly pushed to the sidelines.
The following figures, published in 2023 by the National Biodiversity Observatory, nevertheless demonstrate the dramatic trends currently unfolding in France:
- 20% of natural habitats are in good condition
- 17% of animal and plant species are extinct or threatened with extinction
- 6% of wetland, coastal, or marine ecosystems are well-preserved
“On a personal level, I am deeply concerned about the impact of human activities on the animal, plant, and microbial species around us.”
After two research projects in soil ecology as part of his degree at ENS Paris-Saclay, he took a gap year and completed a 6-month internship working on international projects such as organizing the World Congress of Rangers, which aims to bring together rangers from natural areas around the world for a week. He also became involved with NGOs working on local-scale projects to better protect endangered species such as the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). “From these experiences, I’ve come to realize that one of the key drivers for reversing the current trend is a better collective understanding of the causes and consequences of the unprecedented decline in biodiversity.”
A Year Dedicated to Raising Awareness Among Public Officials, Future Senior Civil Servants, and Elected Officials
In 2024, he proposed a project during his “Specific Year of Engagement as a Normalien” (ASPEN)
“This year, I will work to raise awareness about biodiversity among public officials, future senior civil servants, and elected officials by developing partnerships with relevant stakeholders and creating educational content tailored to each specific audience. Building the capacity of public officials on the subject of biodiversity is an effort I consider essential and indispensable for ensuring these issues are better addressed in public policy. The National Biodiversity Strategy 2030, which France adopted in the fall of 2023, is a step in this direction.”
Developing a concrete project that makes sense to him
He joined the “Stakeholders and Citizens” Division of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), a public agency responsible for the protection and restoration of biodiversity in mainland France and the overseas territories.
Drawing on the expertise of nearly 3,000 staff members and an annual budget of 623 million euros for 2024, the
OFB’s activities are organized around the following five missions:
- Environmental and wildlife health enforcement
- Knowledge, research, and expertise on species, habitats, and their uses
- Support for the implementation of public policies
- Management of and support for natural area managers
- Support for stakeholders and public engagement
“While I hope that my professional life and my civic engagement can contribute to the protection of biodiversity, my project will allow me to get actively involved, starting right now, in a mission that is meaningful to me and fits into a global context, while developing new skills such as:
- Building partnerships with a diverse group of stakeholders who may hold different perspectives
- Gaining a better understanding of the stakeholders working to protect biodiversity and their
respective roles
- Developing an educational program and curriculum
- Exploring scientific and social issues in depth with the aim of making them accessible to a broader audience.”